First 500,000 AIDS Cases -- United States, 1995 (Summary)

This is a summary of a MMWR article that looked at how Age, Gender, Race/Ethnicity, and Exposure Category characteristics for persons with AIDS has changed from 1981 through 1995. In other words... Who is more likely to have AIDS during what time period and how did they contract it? The following information was derived from Table 1. Number and percentage of persons with AIDS, by selected characteristics and period of report -- United States, 1981-October 1995.

 Percentage of Persons with AIDS by Age, USA, 1981-1995 (Stacked Bar Chart, 73K) This graphic shows the percentage of persons with AIDS who fall into the following age categories: 0 to 19, 20 to 29, 30 to 39, 40 to 49, 50 to 59, and over 59 years of age.

• The proportion by age category seems fairly stable over time with a 4% decrease in the 20-29 year old category and a slight increase in the percentage of AIDS cases who are between 40 and 49 years of age.
• The highest proportion of AIDS cases is among 30-39 year olds, second highest is for 40 to 49 year olds and the third highest proportion of AIDS cases is amongst people 20 to 29 years of age.

 Percentage of Persons with AIDS by HIV Exposure Category, USA, 1981-1995 (Stacked Bar Chart and Table, 86K) This graphic shows the percentage of persons with AIDS who were exposed to HIV through the following transmission categories: men who have sex with men, injecting-drug use, men who have sex with men and inject drugs, hemophilia, heterosexual contact, transfusions, perinatal, and no risk reported.

Comparing the earlier time period (1981-1987) to the most recent time period (1993-1995):

• the proportion of people with AIDS who contracted HIV through men having sex with men has decreased from 64% to 45% of AIDS cases;
• the proportion of people with AIDS who contracted HIV through using intravenous (IV) drugs has increased from 17% of cases to 27% of AIDS cases;
• the proportion of people with AIDS who contracted HIV through heterosexual contact has increased from 3% to 10% of AIDS cases.

 Percentage of Persons with AIDS by Gender, USA, 1981-1995 (Pie Chart, 14K) This graphic shows the percentage of males and females with AIDS.

• The percentage of people with AIDS who are female has increased from 8% during the 1981-1987 time period to 17.5% of AIDS cases during the 1993-1995 time period.

 Percentage of Persons with AIDS by Race/Ethnicity, USA, 1981-1995 (Stacked Bar Chart, 73K) This graphic shows the percentage of persons with AIDS by their race ethnicity and includes: White (non-hispanic), Black (non-hispanic), Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander, and American Indian/Alaskan Native.

• People included in the Hispanic ethnic category may be of any race.

Comparing the earlier time period (1981-1987) to the most recent time period (1993-1995):

• the proportion of people with AIDS who are white has decreased from 60% to 43% of AIDS cases;
• the proportion of people with AIDS who are black has increased from 25% to 38% of AIDS cases; and
• the proportion of people with AIDS who are hispanic has increased from 14% to 18% of AIDS cases.
• The rates for Blacks are six times higher than the rates for Whites.
• The rates for hispanics are three times higher than the rates for Whites.
• According to the 1990 Census 83.9% of the US population is White, 12.3% is Black, 3% is Asian/Pacific Islander, .8% are American Indian/Alaskan Native, and 9% are hispanic.

Notes:

• Of the 501,310 total reported AIDS cases, 10% were reported from 1981 through 1987, 41% were reported from 1988 through 1992, and 49% were reported from 1993 to October 31, 1995. Nearly half of the 500,000 AIDS cases were reported since 1993.
• HIV Exposure Category - The 1995 numbers only cover up to October 31, 1995. As a result of this, the "No Risk Reported" HIV Exposure Category is over represented because at the time of this article, people who reported no risk factors had not been interviewed to identify their risk factors.
• As of October 31, 1995, only 37.9% of the people diagnosed with AIDS were still alive.

Source: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
November 24, 1995, Vol. 44, No 46, pp 849-853.

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